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The Regina International Airport is at a near standstill due to COVID-19.
Before the pandemic, about 3,300 people per day would go through the airport. That number would be even higher during the winter months due to the number of charter flights taking place.
But this past week, the airport only saw 200 people in total.
“I’ve talked with the airlines on a daily basis and there’s just not a lot of people getting on these planes even when they are being offered as a flight,” Regina airport CEO James Bogusz told the Greg Morgan Morning Show.
“It’s such a challenging time for the airlines because there’s a huge cost of operating that aircraft and if they’ve only got a small handful of people at best getting on a plane, it’s just really not worthwhile for them to operate.”
There were only five flights set to depart Thursday. At the same time last year, there was 25 departures.
“Regardless of what flights are being offered, they are often being cancelled either due to lack of passengers travelling or other factors that the airline has to take into consideration,” Bogusz said.
There has been some positive news for the airport, with the federal government announcing it is waiving rent payments for the airport.
“The rent payment itself, which last year would be valued at approximately $1 million, I’m just really waiting on the government to provide some guidance on whether it will be based on last year’s revenues or this year’s revenues, which are drastically reduced,” Bogusz said.
Due to the massive dip in revenue, the airport has had to defer projects it had planned to start.
“We were going to replace our roof,” Bogusz said. “It’s a significant project. The roof is incredibly dated and dates back to the early ’80s. We’ve had some water ingress. But even those important projects have to be put on the back burner because we just don’t have any cash coming in.”
The airport will also need to look at cost-cutting measures when it comes to the fixed costs of running the building.
The operating budget has already been trimmed by $1.6 million dollars, including layoffs and reduced operating hours.
More cuts will come in the future, Bogusz said.
Editor’s note: This story has been amended to reflect that the Regina Airport Authority cannot reduce worker salaries. Cuts to the airport’s operating budget have been corrected.
